Friday, October 30, 2009
The Kayayo Crusades
They issue southward into city markets to carry ‘donkey’ burdens. They digest daily disrespect, sleep savagely on shop-front streets, risk rampant rape and robbery, litter ‘loveless’ children, get kidnapped and transported back up north into forced marriages while still spring chicken; all for a daily tip below the subsistence level.
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yes...very descriptive. you have captured someone's thesis in just a few lines. Thank you for this.
ReplyDeleteTheir nightly cries and daytime sighs no one listens to
ReplyDeleteThe few that find their sight appalling still let them carry loads
Like a malignant cancerous tumour we see many more
As surely as the seasons come, the cycle of regret and condoning continues in flee-flowing fashion!
good to have seen you again at Smoothies! I love the alliterative quality of your writing style. Good piece!
ReplyDeletealways a very heartbreaking thing to think about... :(
ReplyDeleteLove it! Love the alliterations....are those called alliterations? I knew I should have paid more attention in English classes. I always feel real guilt when at Makola market and we have to use a kayayo..it is almost like reinforcing a corrupt. I do try and provide a tip well-above the subsistence level but the whole system is just plain wrong.
ReplyDelete:*(
ReplyDeleteI think I get the idea of what you mean but not sure...
ReplyDeleteKayayo!
ReplyDeleteKayayo!
just call me so
and for a token
i'd carry your load.
Sad vicious cycle.Poor parents, poor chn, poor future, no plan from those in charge.
ReplyDeleteThe kaya story is a complex one. Some of these children come from quite okay homes up north. I lived in Fumbisi, in the Upper East for a while and so I know how they get recruited. 13 years ago (things might have change now), when Kaya girls came to the Upper East, they were adored. They were the nicest clothes, told the most amazing stories and quickly convinced the young ones to believe Kumasi or Accra is the dream. Once they get down south, a new, often harsher, reality hits them.
ReplyDeleteTo put it simply, the kaya story is not very different from the Ghanaians who believe the only place they can succeed is Overseas. They are parallel stories.
Life is war!!
ReplyDelete